I have been parenting for a decade, and honestly, I think I am pretty good at it. We “free range” our kids, allowing them the chance to contribute to our family, but also have identities of their own.
And our kids are turning our pretty “okay”. They pitch in, they do their homework. Two thirds of them eat well, and they all seem pretty healthy most of the time.
They will muck out a chicken coop, go for a long hike and play soccer in the rain (all things I feel are very important)
But, we still sometimes get stuck.
As our girls get older we find their need for one on one time. They want “conversation”
As an introvert, I am very content to “be” with my kids.
In silence.
Together. . . but alone.
And I know this isn’t working, and I know I need to do better. I know that eventually I NEED to talk to my kids. . . but what to talk about?
We get the standard responses to “What did you do at school today ” (I don’t remember) . When I try to ask them what they want for dinner the answer is always “PIZZA”
Deep meaningful conversations tend to fall flat, and I can only play “Lets try and name all 37 chickens” so many times (btw, they ALWAYS forget Oreo)
I don’t get kids (even my own) and I can rarely ask the questions they WANT to answer.
Thankfully there is ‘An App For That”
Granted, it isn’t necessarily marketed to those of us with poor parenting skills, but it if the shoe fits. . .
The One Day App has pre-loaded questions for your kids, friends, spouse (perhaps even people you don’t like) and allows you to engage in conversation, via our favourite medium: Video.
With fun seasonal themes, the kids seem to love the questions even more than Hubby and I like hearing their answers.
Check out what happened when we locked our 3 kids in our car, in dense fog, on a boat for 45 minutes. (click the image below to watch)
Crazy eh. We actually talked to them.
And we got information OUT of them.
Perhaps we can encourage the developers to create some “instructional themes” as well to help us challenged parents along?
Perhaps this is the medium we need to start talking about boyfriends? Introducing the hard topics, in a fun and gentle way? In a “talk to the camera” sort of situation?
I know for me introducing sexual health could be much easier if I read “preloaded” questions and kept my eyes behind the camera (I would also have the video saved for future resource/wedding day sharing)
Of course you must know that my sarcastic approach is in jest and that I DO talk to my kids (just in case you were going to troll me with negative comments) But, even still, having any opportunity to engage with my kids in a fun way, that gets them OUT of the iPad games and into real life is a win for me.
It IS a great app, and with it’s easy share it is a fun way to share these special moments from your life with family and friends online.
Once you have created your moment, or movie (a collection of moments aka questions) you can share via FB, Email, Twitter, text message or save the video to your camera roll, or share with a link. (this way everyone can see who cute your kids/husband/friends are. )
